Trail Talk – 8/25/25

Good afternoon Troop 244!!!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I want to wish good luck to all of you scouts starting up school today and to your parents for having to begin the start of a new school year! I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like summer was enough of a “rest” before this school year started! Things are busy and they always seem to get busier! However, I am always glad for a little more regular routine. I am doing my best to embrace the new school year! I hope you will too! A new school year brings a whole new year of scouting as well!

A quick reminder: PACK 235 FUN NIGHT AND COOKOUT TONIGHT. I sent an email about a week ago for an opportunity to help Pack 235. The Pack is having a Pack fun night and cookout at the church(Pathfinder) TONIGHT at 5:30 p.m. They have asked if any of our scouts could come and help. If you are available and not too exhausted from the first day of school, it would be great if we could have a few scouts attend the Pack activity tonight to help! Let them see members of 244!

CLASS A UNIFORMS ARE REQUIRED FROM THIS POINT ON!

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

TUESDAY AUGUST 26TH – TOMORROW NIGHT! First “official” new meeting for the new scout year. I need as many scouts to attend as is possible! We will do a little orientation/talk, introduction of SPL candidates, introduction to new or partial Eagle Required merit badges, talk about activities for the year and end the meeting with our Senior Patrol Leader Election.

PARENT MEETING – We would like to hold a brief parent meeting for the new scout year NEXT WEEK Tuesday, September 2nd at about 7:20 p.m. during the scout meeting. This is an informational meeting to let parents know about some important things for this year and to answer questions you might have. Mostly it is to make sure you are informed. If you are available and can attend, please plan to come to the church and attend this meeting. We will have our regular opening ceremony, patrol elections and then after that we will have the parent meeting. Place at the church is to be determined but there is a good chance it will take place in the Sanctuary!

New Things to Take Note of for this New Year: There are 2 items that you should take note of that are a little different for this upcoming scout year:

Permission Slips – the permission slips for outings have a little different look to them. They are now 2 pages. The first page is the regular permission form that must be turned in. The second page is the medication page. The top portion of the second page can be torn off and kept by PARENTS so that Parents know the time and location of departure and return. This way you don’t have to constantly ask what time we will be back at the church at the end of a campout. You will have that slip to let you know. The bottom half of the second page is to be filled out and then included with any medication that you send along with your scout. Please put the medication and this part of the page in a Ziploc bag and send with your scout when they come to a campout or other outing.

Medical Forms – medical forms are now required for ALL outings for BOTH Adults and Scouts. Medical Forms are good for 1 year, so if you have a medical form that was filled out by a doctor last January, that form will be good until next January. If you had a form filled out prior to a year ago today, it expired, and you need to get a new medical form filled out. Scouts and Adults must have up to date medical forms filled out and on file with the troop to go on outings. If we don’t have an up-to-date medical form on file, then you or your scout cannot go on a campout.

SEPTEMBER CAMPOUT – Yankee Springs September 19 – 21st. This is CONFIRMED! We will be camping at the Deep Lake Group Sites as we have in the past! The cost for this campout is $40 per scout and $20 per adult leader. The permission form for this campout is attached. Please sign up for, turn money and permission slip in for this campout to Sherry as soon as possible!! Last year we only had about 9 scouts, and 4/5 leaders go on the September campout. I need to see more participation from the troop on these things otherwise we will be forced to cancel and that is never a good thing! SIGN UP THIS TUESDAY! The goal for this weekend is to do some Fishing and Hiking. We are going to make this a Fishing Weekend and if you don’t like Fishing, then the alternative will be Hiking. To make it a good Fishing Weekend, we will be bringing 8 canoes with all the equipment with us so that you can go OUT on the lakes and fish! We hope that we have some of you “expert” fisherman handy to help teach the rest of us novices how to fish. Other people that have boats are more than welcome to bring their own. You just have to tow it yourself. If you are 17 years old or older you need a valid Michigan Fishing License for this year.

SwampBase Participants – Please be making your payments for SwampBase now. For the month of August, you should have paid a minimum of $125. We need another payment of $125 due by September 15th. Starting in October, payments will be made in increments of $160 per month through February.

ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY –   September 27 at 9:00 a.m. at the Speedway Gas Station in Schoolcraft. Please bring gloves and wear long pants. We have adopted this section of 131 now for 30 years and we clean it up every September and April. These are SERVICE hours! We need as many people as possible to help! The more we have, the quicker it gets done. It usually takes about 3 hours. We need adults who can drive alongside the highway to supervise and keep scouts safe. Sean Harrigan will be leading up this event.

October Campout – TENTATIVELY Cranhill Ranch. October 24 – 26th. Horseback Riding. This is very tentative right now. I have been going back and forth with Cranhill and am still waiting to hear final details from them. Once I hear back, I will share more information. The cost for this campout will most likely be a little higher than a regular campout. That is why I am announcing this now, so that you can be prepared. The idea for this campout is that scouts would ride horses and earn the Horsemanship Merit Badge. More Information to come.

Philmont 2027 – I sent an email out a week ago with a bunch of information about Philmont 2027. Please refer to that email for the information. The newest piece of information not in that email is that I found out the cost of Philmont itself increased by around $200 per person(2027) compared to what we paid last year(2024). Right now, I have set the price at $2,200. However, that may have to go up at some point to cover the cost of the price increase. I suspect it probably wouldn’t go up more than $50 per person. There is an “interest” sheet on the activity board if you have interested in going to Philmont in 2027. SHERRY HAS THE OFFICIAL SIGNUP SHEET! If you are merely interested in Philmont you will put your name on the interest sheet. If you want to officially sign up for Philmont you will sign up with Sherry and there is a $150 deposit due upon signup per person. I must have people SIGNED UP with the deposit no later than September 23rd so that I know to make the proper reservation. Thank you!

Scoutmaster Minute – EXCITEMENT – The start of a new “year” whether that be a new school year, a new scout year, a new calendar year or a new season of something always brings with it a few mixed emotions. There is usually that feeling of excitement that comes with getting to see people and getting back into the swing of “normal” things. There is also often that feeling of trepidation that comes with something new. We often ask ourselves “what will this year bring”, “what is going to happen this year”, “will it be good or bad” and of course, we don’t know the answers to these questions. If you had asked me at this time last year whether my father would pass away in the next year, I would have said you are crazy. We just don’t know what is going to happen. However, often it is our mindset that defines how we are going to handle what is going to happen. Are we going to face things with excitement or with trepidation or with a mix of the two? Are we going to tackle challenges head on or just give up? Are we going to give our “all” to whatever it is that we are doing or are we going to only give these things half our energy? In the end, it is up to each and every one of you what you will do with the “new” year ahead. For Scouting, I ask that you all think about your level of commitment and participation and truly do your best to give it your all. We all have things that get in the way of what we are doing but how much do we truly “try” when there isn’t something blocking our path. Are you in the middle of a sports season but a practice gets out early and you simply decide not to come to scouts anyway? Or do you put in the effort and COMMITMENT and make sure you are there. Do you do all you can to be a part of Troop 244?!! Do you have a partial merit badge? Make a commitment to get it done! I dare every single one of you to face this new scout/school year with excitement and with commitment instead of with trepidation and indifference!

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244